


Hot and Cold

by keitaiijima



Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types, Battle Royale - Takami Koushun
Genre: Fluff, Kinda mention of underage sex but nothing like that actually happens in the fic, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28370472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keitaiijima/pseuds/keitaiijima
Summary: Shinji has a hot date and Yutaka has a cold.One-shot.
Relationships: Mimura Shinji/Seto Yutaka
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Hot and Cold

**Author's Note:**

> I've literally never written this pairing before so go easy on me. I also never write fluff and I have no idea how to do it without it just being... cringy. But I had sudden inspiration to do this and I have a very specific target audience for it (AKA one person who always writes my favourite ship for me sooo I figured I'd try to repay that).

It really wasn’t easy being this popular.

Shinji could hardly remember life before he was the big basketball star at school and every girl turned their head to look at him as he walked down the hallway.

Not that he’d _want_ to remember that time, anyway. The Third Man was basically made for this kind of fame and worship.

The only problem really, was when his schedule got so cramped, with sports, girls, friends, and research of the dodgier kind into computer systems and the government. Sometimes he had to make sacrifices. Like today, he had to turn down a friendly practice match between his team and one of the Junior Highs in Sakaide, because he had scored a date with the hottest girl in 8th grade. Or rather, she had scored a date with him. That’s how he saw it, anyway.

Mikasa Ito. She was watching him from across the cafeteria right now, blushing and looking away when he caught her eye. Even from a distance, Shinji could hear her loudly giggling with her friends. Honestly, she seemed a little annoying, but she was hot. He didn’t have to _talk_ to her much anyway.

“The stud has done it again,” Shuya joked, bringing Shinji back from his own thoughts and into the conversation amongst his own friends. “Are you nervous about the date?”  
“Please,” Shinji chuckled, raising an eyebrow. “What would I ever have to be nervous about?”  
Yoshitoki sighed, leaning his cheek against his hand as he rested his arm against the table. “Man, imagine having confidence. I’d have definitely asked Nakagawa out by now…”  
“You should still do that!” Shuya argued. It was a recurring discussion between them, with Shuya really not understanding why Yoshitoki was so nervous about it. Of course, Shuya thought highly of all his friends and honestly believed they would all be a total catch, for any girl.  
“Do you like this girl?” Hiroki asked, sounding a little uncomfortable. That wasn’t unusual for him when they talked about girls.  
Shinji frowned. “No? I don’t know. I don’t know her.”

He always thought his friends were a bit concerned with the whole _liking a girl_ thing. Why did it always have to be so serious? Shinji sure wasn’t ready to settle down with anyway.   
_Come on, we’re 15, can’t we just have fun?  
_ “Should we bet on whether or not this will end with another heartbroken teenage girl, all thanks to The Third Man?” Shuya grinned, nudging Shinji jokingly.  
“Whoever bets against must get _really_ good odds,” Yoshitoki laughed too.

Laughing too, Shinji couldn’t help but notice that one of his friends were uncharacteristically quiet. Yutaka, his best friend, was usually full of jokes and playful teasing, especially when it came to his mates dating life. But now he was just silently looking around at his friends faces, his eyes glassy as if he was zoning out a bit.  
“You okay, dude?” Shinji asked him quietly, as the others continued talking amongst themselves. Yutaka blinked, as if he just realized where he was. Putting on a smile, he nodded slowly.  
“Yeah, sorry. I spaced out a little. I stayed up last night to watch this documentary on aliens, so I’m sorta tired,” he explained, his voice sounding a little raspy. “Your date. If you need to rehearse your moves, you know I’m here for you.”  
Shinji chuckled at this. “When have I ever needed to rehearse?”  
“Maybe one of these days you’ll say yes,” Yutaka laughed too, before his laugh turned into a small coughing fit. Once it calmed down, he smiled weakly. “Sorry, swallowed wrong. Gonna get some water.”  
  
Shinji didn’t really question this, but Hiroki looked a little concerned as Yutaka left the table.  
“Is he okay? He’s quiet today,” he pointed out.  
“He’s fine,” Shinji confirmed without really any evidence other than the fact that he wasn’t one to overanalyse these things. “Maybe it just seems extra quiet because there’s no –“  
“- Heeey, guys!” Keita grinned, throwing himself down at the chair Yutaka had just left empty. “Back from the dentist! Hope you didn’t miss me too much!”  
He laughed in his usual, sharp manner, causing Shinji to wince. He had forgotten Keita had been at the dentists, and had instead hoped maybe he got kidnapped or something. But even if he _was_ , the kidnappers would probably send him back after an hour. He would never get rid of him…

“Soo, date with Ito, huh? Think you’re gonna smash that?” Keita laughed even louder, smacking Shinji’s shoulder.   
“How do you know that?” Shinji asked dryly. He certainly didn’t talk to Keita about these things. In fact, he usually saved personal conversations for when Keita wasn’t around.   
Shuya looked a little apologetic.  
“It came up in the group chat. I didn’t know it was a secret!” he explained, scratching the side of his face.  
Oh, right. Shinji had the groupchat that involved Keita on mute, for obvious reasons.   
“She’s so fine, man. Good job! Maybe you could hook me up with one of her friends and we can go on bestie double dates or something? That’d be wicked!” Keita continued, still beaming with enthusiasm. Shinji couldn’t imagine anything worse. He’d rather not date any girl ever again than go on a double date with Keita.

Before he had to reject this offer, Yutaka returned, a water bottle in hand. He looked at Keita sitting in his seat, but didn’t look like he had the energy to really say anything. Shinji however, was quick to make a shooing motion towards Keita.  
“Yutaka was sitting there,” he said simply.   
“It’s fine,” Yutaka said, sniffing slightly. “Class’ about to start. We should probably head back anyway.”  
His voice sounded a bit thick, and when Shinji looked closer, his eyes looked red too. Had he been crying or something?

As the boys got to their feet, Shinji stepped a little closer to Yutaka. His smaller friend took a couple of wobbly steps back, but still gave him a weak smile.  
“What’s going on? Are you okay?” Shinji wondered, frowning. “Did something happen?”  
“N-No. I’m good. Sorry, still thinking about that alien invasion thing,” Yutaka insisted, though Shinji could easily tell it was nothing but a bad lie.  
“Okay…” he replied, biting his lip. “Do you wanna come back to mine after school though? Hang out a little before my date? Maybe I’ll take you up on rehearsing those movies,” he joked.  
Yutaka gave a weak laughter, but nodded.  
“Who can say no to that?” he replied, making Shinji a little relieved that he was at least still joking back to him. Whatever was wrong couldn’t be so bad, then.

Their walk back to Shinji’s house took longer than usual. Yutaka’s steps seemed unnaturally slow, and Shinji spent most of the walk observing him out of the corner of his eye. The short walk also seemed to make Yutaka break into a sweat, his breathing laboured.  
“I need to get in better shape, huh?” Yutaka joked when he caught Shinji looking at him with slight concern. “I’ll never be on the basketball team, but this is ridiculous.”  
“You could always join my runs sometimes,” Shinji suggested with a shrug.  
“Let’s not get carried away,” Yutaka laughed, which again resulted in a coughing fit. “Shit. Sorry.”  
“That’s fine. Maybe you’re coming down with something. It is autumn, after all,” Shinji said. Yutaka was always struggling with colds whenever the weather got a little colder. It wouldn’t be such a surprise if that was what was happening. But Yutaka shook his head.  
“No, don’t think so. Just got a weird throat or something.”  
So Shinji let it go. He wasn’t about to baby him over nothing anyway.

Once in Shinji’s bedroom, Yutaka sat down onto his bed, his back resting against the wall. Shinji was looking through his closet, wondering if he should pick an outfit that screamed “I don’t give a shit” or if he should actually put in some effort and hope to get laid. Ito had suggested they just hang out at her place, and apparently her parents wouldn’t be home, so it didn’t seem like such a stretch.  
“Will I get a fashion show?” Yutaka asked from the bed.  
“You wish,” Shinji chuckled. “I can’t be bothered. It’ll mess up my hair anyway to change back and forth. I was just thinking a black jumper.”  
“You’ll look good,” Yutaka replied. “You always do.”  
  
Something about his tone sounded more sincere than it did a joke. It made Shinji turn around to look at him, just in time to see him rub his nose with the back of his sleeve.  
“Yeah…” Shinji said thoughtfully. Finally, he took a properly good look at Yutaka. Had he been this pale the whole day, or had it just happened after they got back to his place? His face looked white as a sheet but his cheeks still had a slight red glow to them. Throwing his jumper onto his desk chair, he walked over to Yutaka at the bed.   
“W-What are you doing?” Yutaka stuttered as Shinji reached a hand out and placed it softly onto his friend’s forehead.

Shinji frowned at the contact. Yutaka’s skin felt like it was burning against his own cool hand.   
“You got a fever!” he pointed out, his voice louder than intended. He sounded almost harsh, but he didn’t understand why Yutaka had lied about it before. “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“I… I’m fine,” Yutaka lied, but he squirmed away from Shinji’s hand. “I-It’s not a big deal.”  
“You’re shaking, too!” Shinji added, finally noticing the small shivers running down Yutaka’s body. “What the fuck, Yutaka? Wait here!”  
  
Without explaining further, Shinji left his bedroom, with a confused Yutaka staring after him. He went to the kitchen first, grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen, figuring Yutaka could do with some hydration. His next stop was the bathroom, where he got a small cloth and ran it under some cool water. As he was grabbing these things, he kept mumbling under his breath about his friend being totally hopeless.

Finally, he returned to the bedroom, where Yutaka was sitting in the exact same spot. The only difference was that he had wrapped his arms around himself, seemingly to gain some warmth. Shinji sighed.  
“Get under the covers,” he demanded. Yutaka looked like he didn’t quite understand the request.   
“What? No, come on, you got to leave soon anyway. Your date…-“  
“- I’ll tell her I’ll be late. It’s fine, I don’t care,” Shinji replied truthfully. “Seriously, get under the covers, before I make you.”

He was sure Yutaka didn’t really feel threatened by this in any way, but he probably felt too weak to argue, because he did as he was told.  
“Good,” Shinji said approvingly. “Now, have a sip of this before I tuck you in.”  
He handed him the glass of water, and Yutaka couldn’t do much other than accept it and take a couple of small sips.  
As he did so, Shinji used his chance to text Ito.  
 _“Will be a little late, sorry. Text later.”_ It was maybe a little cold, but he couldn’t care less.

Yutaka handed him the glass back and Shinji put it on his desk, next to the phone. He wrapped the covers tightly around Yutaka, before placing the cold cloth on his forehead.  
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick, idiot? You’re always sick,” he chastised, half-kneeling next to the bed, his hand keeping the cloth in place.  
“Yeah, exactly,” Yutaka mumbled, closing his eyes for a moment. “It’s really annoying, isn’t it? I thought I’d just… Wait until it went away or something. Guess that didn’t work.”  
  
“No, guess it didn’t,” Shinji agreed, and couldn’t help but smile a little. “It’s not annoying. I mean, not to us. It probably is to you. But there’s no need to hide it or anything, you’ll clearly just make yourself worse like that.”  
Yutaka sighed, still keeping his eyes closed. “Clearly,” he muttered in agreement.   
Shinji thought he could see his friend still tremble slightly despite the covers.  
“Do you want me to grab some extra blanket from the living room?” he asked. “If you’re still feeling cold.”  
“No, it’s okay,” Yutaka replied quickly. “Don’t… Don’t go.”

Shinji contemplated what to do for a moment, before making up his mind. Moving the covers to the side for a moment, he slid in next to Yutaka, sliding his left arm around him so Yutaka’s head now rested against his shoulder instead of on the pillow.  
“Uh… What are you doing now?” Yutaka asked in a small voice, his eyes suddenly wide open. “You’ll catch it too, if you get too close…”  
“Whatever,” Shinji said casually. “Body heat is the best kind of heat, you know. So you’re welcome.”  
  
Both of them were quiet for a moment. He wasn’t sure if Yutaka was enjoying the silence or if he was struggling for what to say, but as for Shinji, he didn’t mind one bit laying like this with Yutaka. He kind of hoped Yutaka felt the same way.  
Eventually, Yutaka spoke.  
“Sorry… About making you miss out on your hot date. You can still go. I’ll really be fine,” he said quietly, not sounding like he really believed what he was saying.

Shinji shrugged the best he could, which wasn’t easy with Yutaka’s head taking up most of his left shoulder.  
“Nah. You’re hotter anyway,” he commented with a smile.  
Yutaka made a noise reminiscent of a small laugh.   
“Is that like… a fever joke? Because if so, good one,” he muttered, burying his face further into Shinji’s shirt.  
“Yeah, sure,” Shinji replied, even though he was pretty sure it hadn’t been a joke at all.

He probably should send the girl a proper text to say he wouldn’t make it after all, but his phone was laying on his desk out of arms-reach. And he wasn’t about to move now that Yutaka seemed to have gotten so comfortable. It didn’t take long before he could hear his smaller friend’s breath grow deep and steady, and he realized he had fallen asleep. Yeah, no way in hell Shinji would risk waking him.

Instead, he shifted slightly to make himself more comfortable too, placing his right arm around Yutaka to bring him even closer. He’d obviously never held one of his friends in his arms like this before. He hadn’t even considered it, at all. But if he had imagined it, he would have probably assumed it would have felt… Weird, in some way. Still, it didn’t. It felt completely natural and comfortable, like Yutaka belonged right there in his arms. For a brief moment he wondered why he hadn’t considered doing this before.

But then he shook that off. He was Shinji Mimura, the Third Man. One of the most popular boys in school among the girls. He _liked_ girls. Didn’t he? Having sex with them was fun, and talking to them was… Well… Not as fun as talking to Yutaka, but that was his best friend, so of course he’d enjoy spending time with him more than he did with anyone else. That was normal too, wasn’t it?

Yutaka’s body moved a little against him, his face completely buried against his chest now. Without thinking, Shinji moved a hand to brush through his damp hair. He knew deep down there was no point in reasoning with himself at this stage. This was _exactly_ where he wanted to be, and who he wanted to be with.

Though it might take some time before he said that out loud. No rush, right? Him and Yutaka weren’t separating any time soon, anyway. 


End file.
